Officials, photographer expand on incident at Mary Mahoney’s
BILOXI — A spokesman for Gov. Haley Barbour said he kicked a Sun Herald photographer out of Mary Mahoney’s restaurant on Friday to keep distractions to a minimum as the governor and first lady shot a commercial promoting Coast tourism post-BP oil spill.
Sun Herald photographer John Fitzhugh said he was not causing any distractions, and that a member of Barbour’s state Highway Patrol security detail threatened him with arrest even after he left the restaurant and stood on a public sidewalk, photographing and filming the outside of the building.
Two attorneys who specialize in First Amendment law said the restaurant’s owner would have the right to ask someone to leave his property, but not the governor’s staff.
“While I have no personal knowledge of the events, it would appear to be the type thing in which the public has a specific interest and it does not appear to me the press or members of the public should have been excluded,” said Leonard Van Slyke, attorney for the Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information and media outlets.
“A member of the public or a member of the media at all times has a right to be on a public sidewalk if they are not interfering with an officer in the performance of his duties. The media should be allowed to do its job and the public should be allowed to come and go without undue interference. That’s just part of being a citizen of this country.”
Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2010/05/25/2209622/officials-photographer-expand.html#ixzz0p2hjsaX2
5/26/10
